The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-04-15
Slain by His Victim.

w FASSAAns
On Wednesday of last week IN the
city of St. Paul, Mrs. Bertha Hegener
shot and killed one John Murphy who
had been in the employ of Mr.. Heg-
euer, and who had circulated scandal
Gus and dlsgraceful statements con-
corning Mrs. Hegener's virtue, simply
because his atfectionate passions tow
ard her were not reciprooated. Pub
lie opinion seems largely in sympathy
with Mrs. Hegencr, and the Pioneer
Press IN a column editorial, of which
the author may well feel proud, also
sympathizes with the unfortunate
woman. We clip portion of the
editorial above referred to for the ben-
eft of our readers. 1t says:
lit is not necessary to
inquire now what element of truth
there is in this defense. The moral
lies in another direction. Aud 1t is
akin to that which is always drawn
from the killing, by husband, of the
seducer of his wife. Public sentiment
cannot and will not do otherwise than
pronounce the doom of a man who
pursues an innocent woman to her
ruin q just one. Of all the vile Great
ures that crawl between earth and
heaven, polluting the world with their
presence and Shaming humanity with
the sight of depths to which it may
fall, incomparably the lowest, the vilest,
the most bestial, the unworthiest to
defile the earth. is the slanderer of
female virtue. His crime is one against
which the law does not and cannot
place fitting penalty. 1t belongs with
offenses of Sodom and GOmOrah,
which call for the direct vengence of
heaven. For, consider but for mo-
ment how absolutely helpless woman is
to this vile attack. Her good name is
the one possession whose loss is ire
parable. And yet it is the one that is
at the mercy of every idle tongue.
Probably no man ever lived, unless
he were "a mere beast of burden, who
did not, at some time, have it in his
power to ruin the reputation of a
woman. The freedom of social inter.
course, the pure delights of friendship,
the ordinary uSages of society throw
the sexes SO far together that oppor-
tunitles for wrong-doing are present
or can be made, Let u man, in such
case, although there has been no
thought or hint of improperly, put out
a mere inuendo, and suspicion attach
es to the unhappy object all the rest
of her life. Let him make positive
assertion of fayors granted, and he has
done far worse that if he had sent d
merciful bullet straight to his victims
heart. Nothing but the establishment
Of the monastery and the nnnnery
could remove this possibility. 1t
ought not to be removed. The safe
guard must be thai tenderness for
woman's fame which leads all but the
most abandoned to protect it with life
itself.
There were many absurd and over
wrought features about what we are
accustomed to refer to as the "chiyalry''
Of the south. But it has had this re-
deeming virtue; that the fame of
woman, unless she were publicly prov
ed shamless, was sacred. Not only a
relative. hnt a friend or a mere ac-
qaaiatance made the quarrel his; and
the man who dared to reflect, ever so
lightly, upon female virtue took his
life in bis hand. If he sacrificed it,
the public holds his SLAYER justified.
What else is society to do with the pit
iful vermin who make boast of their
real or imaginary conquests? If the
miserable braggart is lying, death is
not punishment too heavy. Even
if he tells the truth, and If he has
triumphed by diligent working upon q
weekly affectionate nature, his lips,
above all others, should be sealed be-
fore the very seat of Judgment And
when we come TO that still still more in-
famous thing, the spreading of obscene
rumor to undermine a home, the willful
purpose to drive All honored and hon
orable wife from her family into the
brothel, vengence cannot be too swift
or deep" : = =